


devour the knowledge, beget of the tree (the forbidden fruit, in the palm of your hand)

by TheBizarreHairTrio



Series: let the ocean take you into deadly embrace (one piece x the lobby crossover) [5]
Category: One Piece, The Lobby
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Character Study, Crossover, Gen, Laugh Tale, Not Beta Read, Ohara (One Piece), Runo Deserves Nice Things, Runo's Time Shards, Runo-centric, So yeah, Tree of Knowledge (One Piece), Void Century (One Piece), autumn is just patting runo's shoulder and being a nice uncle/aunt figure, because well. ohara gets genocide'd and it's not pretty, don't think i forgot about the seasonal spirit gods! because i didn't, i forgot the gender neutral word for that fuck, knowledge for the sake of learning and because they just wanna know!, like she gets knowledge through ADVERSITY and learning has like. a purpose to it, little tidbit on why the fucking celestial dragons are Not Liked by the actual REAL gods here, meanwhile moon is child-like curiosity vibes and like, moon thinks runo should be happy but runo is like. yeahhhhh no can't too much trauma, ohara: gets fucking buster called, runo is like really fucking sad guys and she's not gonna get un-sad until her nice things stop dying, runo is like. old woman wisdom knowledge stuff vibes sorta, runo: i know better now, runo: starts to think she actually might deserve to be happy, they're curious and learning stuff is fun, this is just 1k words of runo angsting and that's how most runo fics go tbh, those are like. REALLY cool and my favorite part of runo's divine dwelling thing, uh oh another unintentional duality between runo and moon oh woah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24564841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBizarreHairTrio/pseuds/TheBizarreHairTrio
Summary: The thing about happiness is that it never lasts, and she who is time can't let herself be happy when it always ends up being taken away.(Or: Ohara loves Runo, but she can't bring herself to love it back.)
Relationships: Nico Olvia & Nico Robin, Runo & Moon (The Lobby)
Series: let the ocean take you into deadly embrace (one piece x the lobby crossover) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769800
Kudos: 2





	devour the knowledge, beget of the tree (the forbidden fruit, in the palm of your hand)

A tree is planted, and she who is time _knows._ Her Shards flicker in sync, all flitting through images of the tree, growing over the course of millennia, and she exhales light through cracked, fragile lips. Hers, she knows in the center of her essence. This tree is for her, for knowledge and knowing, and she may be suffering and time and destruction but she’s knowledge and wisdom, too. This tree of knowledge and the tribe that flocks to it are _hers._

And the tribe knows her, knows her domain, calls her Observer and Patron. She never steps foot on the island, but sometimes she feels as if they know she’s watching. She always is.

(the tribe doesn’t know her as destruction, as suffering, but they will

if not now, then later

it is inevitable, because runo can’t keep nice things before they crumble to dust before her eyes)

They pray to her, this little tribe, asking for wisdom and enlightenment. She blesses them grudgingly, shies away from their praise and adoration; she wonders, absently, why for a tribe of scholars and historians, they don’t seem to know she’s more than only knowledge and wisdom. She who is time is a destroyer; she suffers and makes others suffer, destroys cherished things and beloved ones, and all subject to the passage of time will fall to her in the end.

(runo is a destroyer; it is in her nature. she is memories and connections, knowledge and wisdom, celebrations and suffering, time and destruction; she is ruinous, a catastrophe. whatever good thing comes her way will be broken beyond repair

it is not a choice. it is her nature)

Patron to communities, is what she who is time is. Communities and the suffering, said in the lowest of hums. Because there is community in suffering, laughed in the bitterest of tones. The tribe laughs together, loves together, dances around the tree that is hers and celebrates, forges connections between them so thick she’s momentarily breathless. She turns away; dismisses the ache, for there is nothing for her here.

But are you not celebrations as well? asks they who are magic, infinite folds flowing as they settle, for the tribe is theirs as well, knowledge seekers and curious beings the lot of them are. Why won’t you allow yourself to do something that will make you happy?

She who is time breezes past they who are magic, a careless quip on her stiff mouth. Why would I ever want to be happy?

Why wouldn’t you, counters they who are magic, the stars gleaming above them. 

She who is time doesn’t have an answer.

(“because i am suffering,” says runo to moon, cracks running up and down her fragile form, despairing because that is all she knows. “because i am destruction, a destroyer, and whatever happiness that finds its way to me will be destroyed”

“but even a destroyer deserves good things,” says moon to runo, infinite folds of abstract beauty, hopeful because that is all they know. “happiness is something for everyone”

runo shakes her head with the burden of knowledge gained through necessity, wisdom earned through adversity. moon watches her leave with all the weight of knowledge sought for the simple want of learning, for curiosity’s sake)

Her tree has grown, she who is time observes, that which is autumn at her shoulder. The leaves are all in shades of flames, and she settles, as content and she’ll let herself be. A flash of fire catches her attention in a Shard across the clearing, but she sees nothing when she approaches it. She exhales light, cracked fingers reaching out for her porcelain mug, and she unwinds, that which is autumn patting her shoulder with a hand of sticks and leaves held together by winds. She sighs, recalling her favored, the man who changed the world and caught her attention. She allows herself to smile, light between her lips, in memory of the man and the treasure he left behind at the end of the world, before she lets the smile thin into a hard line. 

The falsely self-proclaimed gods had arrested her attention, made her reach for her scythe even as her delicate form gained more and more cracks, lighting shining through with the force of her anger. And she who is time was _angry,_ fingers crumbling as they clenched around her scythe. False gods they were, razing their temple-cities to the ground, and while destruction never made her either joyful or angered, this did. It was a supplanting, a usurping, but for all of her anger, she could do nothing. 

They sought to erase them from the world, her and the rest of the pantheon, but even they couldn’t destroy everything; that ability laid with her and her alone. They could never wipe them out completely, for she is also _memories,_ and the memories of sentient beings will endure.

(you can’t destroy the ocean; she will always be there

you can’t erase death; he will always be there

you can’t erase creation; she will always be there

you can’t erase time; she will always be there

they’re permanent, she and the pantheon; for the destruction of them all means the destruction of everything)

~~Her~~ The tribe continues on, studying history and reading secret glyphs, which makes he who is the night laugh and she who is time smile reluctantly as she remembers her favored. She scowls as the false gods outlaw the glyphs and the history they tell, disgruntled by the restriction of knowledge, even as she allows a quirk of stiff lips as the tribe proceeds with their research of them. 

She worries, just a little. Wonders when it will be, when her bouts of happiness will end, and the tribe that claims love and adoration for her will suffer and die.

It’s only a matter of time.

(later, runo will find that this is only the beginning of the end)

An archaeologist is born to the tribe, and she who is time can’t help herself, not when they ask her for wisdom for this child. She gives her greater capacity for knowledge, ingrained wisdom she will hopefully listen to. 

The little wise girl grows older, meets a man who shares her wish for travel and exploration, for finding the secret glyphs and uncovering the history lost to the world. She who is time allows herself a bit of pride, watches over them for all that she isn’t a goddess of protection.

The little wise girl is a wise woman now, husband lost and daughter named for she who is time. She leaves for her expedition, entrusts the little bird of a girl to family, going off to fulfill her dream.

(runo lets a robin alight on her finger, watches over the wise woman’s daughter. she’s smart like her mother, and again, runo can’t help herself, can’t stop herself from gifting knowledge and wisdom to the girl named for her robins

“you will accomplish great things,” says runo, and thinks to herself that maybe she can finally let herself be happy

there’s no bigger mistake she could have made)

Her tree is burning. Her tree is _burning,_ and her tribe with it, and there is the destruction and the suffering she who is time is goddess of. 

She can’t find it within herself to feel surprised, and though she cannot cry in this form, she thinks she feels the drip of a tear anyways. The girl named for her robins lives, but what does that matter when she has suffered so keenly? What does that matter when the destruction that is her domain has reached her island? She wouldn’t blame her, the little bird of a girl, if she cursed her name, that of the Destroyer, because she doesn’t deserve the name of Patron anymore. Not after this. Not after everything. 

She wants to hate the false gods, to shatter with anger and cleave their proclaimed holy land into pieces with her scythe, wishes to let herself become ruinous, become the Destroyer she so obviously is, but she _can’t._

All she feels is tired.

(why let yourself be happy if it’ll never last?

runo always has been in love with eternities)


End file.
